Einstein's Dreams

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Einstein's Dreams

ALAN LIGHTMAN
1993

INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
PLOT SUMMARY
CHARACTERS
THEMES
STYLE
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
CRITICAL OVERVIEW
CRITICISM
SOURCES
FURTHER READING

INTRODUCTION

Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams was first published in 1993 by Warner Books. Despite the fact that the book was Lightman's first work of fiction—he had only written nonfiction books on physics, astrophysics, and astronomy up until that point—the book was an instant critical and popular success, becoming an international bestseller. Set over the course of April 1905 to June 1905, the novel presents a fictional version of the physicist Albert Einstein as he forms his famed theory of relativity. Quite literally a book of Einstein's dreams, nearly every chapter depicts a world in which the laws of time operate under different conditions. Each of the physicist's dreams thus illustrates how humankind's various experiences of time affect their experiences of the world and also of one another. The book, then, is a meditation on the nature of time and of being human. At intervals throughout the book, Einstein is depicted in his waking life as he works towards perfecting the theory of relativity, which will bring him worldwide renown. Given its weighty topic, Einstein's Dreams is one of the few contemporary novels about science to be studied in high schools and colleges nationwide. The original edition of the novel remains in print, and a 2004 edition was released by Vintage Books.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Alan Lightman was born November 28, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee. His father, Richard Lightman, owned a movie theater chain, and his mother, Jeanne Garretson Lightman, was a dance teacher who also volunteered as a Braille typist. Lightman's scientific talent was apparent early on, and as a young student, he entered (and won) several science fairs and competitions at state and national levels. Lightman attended White Station High School in Memphis, and though he continued his scientific studies, he also began writing poetry. He earned the state-level National Council of Teachers of English literary award for his efforts. Lightman graduated from high school in 1966, and then graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree from Princeton University. In 1974, he received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology. Lightman went on to conduct his post-doctorate work in astrophysics at Cornell University from 1974 to 1976, publishing his poems in literary magazines at the same time. Lightman married the painter Jean Greenblatt in 1976, and the couple has two daughters, Elyse and Kara.

After working as assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard University from 1976 to 1979, Lightman became a lecturer in astronomy and physics there from 1979 to 1989. He also worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, as a staff astrophysicist from 1979 to 1989. During this time, Lightman published his first scientific textbooks, including Problem Book in Relativity and Gravitation (1975) and Revealing the Universe: Prediction and Proof in Astronomy (1982), which Lightman edited with James Cornell. By 1981, Lightman began writing essays about the more human aspects of science, most of which were published in a Science column from 1982 to 1986. These essays were also collected and published as Time Travel and Papa Joe's Pipe: Essays on the Human Side of Science (1984) and A Modern-Day Yankee in a Connecticut Court, and Other Essays on Science (1986). In 1989, Lightman joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as professor of science and writing and senior lecturer in physics. He was the first person to be assigned a post in both the sciences and humanities at MIT. In 1995, Lightman was named the John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities. He resigned from the position in 2001 in order to have more time to pursue his writing, although he remained employed at MIT as an adjunct professor of humanities, a post he still held as of 2008.

During his early career at MIT, Lightman published several nonfiction books, including Ancient Light: Our Changing View of the Universe (1991) and Time for the Stars: Astronomy in the 1990s (1992). The former won the Boston Globe Critics' Choice award. The following year, Lightman published his first novel, Einstein's Dreams, to immense success. The book was nominated for the PEN New England/Boston Globe Winship award and was translated into thirty languages, earning the rare status of international bestseller. Lightman followed up on the success of Einstein's Dreams with the novels Good Benito (1995) and The Diagnosis (2000). The latter was a finalist for the National Book Award.

In 1999, Lightman founded the Harpswell Foundation, an organization dedicated to making education available to women and children in Cambodia. For his philanthropy work, Lightman was awarded the Gold Medal for humanitarian service from the government of Cambodia. Returning to fiction writing in 2003, Lightman released his fourth novel, Reunion. Aside from his novels, Lightman has continued to write books on science and on the intersection between science and humanities, such as A Sense of the Mysterious: Science and the Human Spirit (2005). Lightman's professional focus on this intersection led to his cofounding the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT in 2001. He is also the first author to have an essay on language published in the science periodical Nature, and to have a short story published in the physics journal Physics Today.

PLOT SUMMARY

Prologue

It is 1905, late June in the Alps at a pre-dawn hour. A young patent clerk (presumably Albert Einstein) sits at his desk having just finished a twenty-page paper that he's been writing through the night. The paper is on the clerk's new theory of time. It is based on the dreams he has been having since April.

14 April 1905

This is the book's first dream, taking place two months before the prologue. It opens with the statement: "Suppose time is a circle, bending back on itself. The world repeats itself, precisely, endlessly." What follows is a description of what this kind of world would be like. Notably, this format can be seen in most of the dreams.

In this world, people live their lives as if every moment is unique, unaware that it will repeat itself. Those who have lived "unhappy lives" are "vaguely aware" of this repetition; they feel a sense of déjà vu at each bad decision, and a sense of resigned chagrin at each consequence.

16 April 1905

Time here is like "water" flowing, moving along until parts of it are diverted in other directions, namely the past. People who are tragically swept into the past are afraid to act for fear of changing the future. A person like this is a "ghost" who has "lost his personhood" and "is an exile of time."

19 April 1905

This chapter opens as a man decides not to go see the woman he is interested in dating. Based on this decision, he meets a different woman and has a happy future with her. But, this world has "three dimensions, like space." In the remaining two dimensions the man does decide to go see the first woman. In one of the two dimensions, they fall in love, and though she does not treat him well, he is still happy. In the other, they do not fall in love, and the man returns home, feeling "empty." In this world, every time a decision is made, no matter how minor, "the world splits into three worlds," with different scenarios for each decision. Because of this, "there are an infinity of worlds."

24 April 1905

There are two kinds of time in this world, "mechanical time" and "body time." Those who live by the latter do not use clocks; they eat, sleep, and work whenever they feel like it. Those who live by mechanical time wake, eat, and work at the same exact time each day. Both worlds can simultaneously exist "in one," but when they come together, they cause "desperation," and when they move apart, they cause "contentment." Though "each time is true," their "truths are not the same."

26 April 1905

People here only live in the mountains because time moves more slowly the farther one is from the center of the earth, and they can increase their longevity by doing so. Some do not care about extending their lives for a few minutes. They enjoy the empty valleys and swim in the deserted lakes. Over time, people forget "why higher is better," but they stay and continue to teach their children to do the same. They suffer in the cold, thin mountain air and they "have become thin like the air, bony, old before their time."

28 April 1905

Here "time is absolute." There are regular and daily celebrations of time. Religious people think time is the "evidence for God." Philosophers have also "placed time at the center of their belief," and they use time as a moral touchstone. All over this world, people are comforted by time. They take "refuge" in it and in the thought that the moment of their birth is "recorded," as are all of the moments of their lives.

3 May 1905

In this world, "cause and effect are erratic." One may come before or after the other with no discernible pattern. Despite this, the "future and past are entwined." For instance, a man does not understand why his friends want nothing more to do with him. A week later, he is unkind to them. In the "acausal" (without cause) world, the past and the future become meaningless. The present thus becomes ever more meaningful.

4 May 1905

Two couples are on their traditional annual vacation together. Their conversation is banal, and they do nothing of interest. In this world, "little happens." Either it is time that does not move or it is the people. This chapter also asks whether "time and the passage of events are the same."

Interlude

The narrative shifts back to Einstein in the waking world. He and his friend Besso are on the way to Besso's house to have dinner with Besso's wife, Anna. Occasionally, when Einstein stays too long at their house, Einstein's wife, Mileva, comes with their "infant" to retrieve him. At dinner, Einstein tells Besso, "I want to understand time because I want to get close to The Old One." Besso says that "perhaps The Old One is not interested in getting close to his creations." He also adds that "it is not obvious that knowledge is closeness."

MEDIA ADAPTATIONS

A musical composition titled "In This World," based on Eisntein's Dreams, was written by Paul Hoffman and performed in the Boston metro area by the Silverwood Trio in 2000. Their independently recorded concert is available from http://CDBaby.com in compact disc format.
Einstein's Dreams has been adapted as a play, which was produced and directed by Patrizia Acerra and Dawn Arnold at the National Pastime Theater (Chicago, IL) in 2000; a revised adaptation was staged there in 2005.
A separate stage adaptation of the book was produced at the Paradise Theater (New York, NY) in 2001, produced and directed by Paul Stancato and Brian Rhinehart.
A musical composition based on the book, titled "When Einstein Dreams," was written by Nando Michelin and performed by the Nando Michelin Group in 2003. Produced by record label Double-Time, this composition is available on compact disc.
Einstein's Dreams was independently adapted to the stage by the Culture Project Theater (New York, NY) in 2003, directed by Rebecca Holderness.
A stage adaptation of the novel by Brian Niece and David Alford was produced at the People's Branch Theater (Nashville, TN) in 2003.
A musical adaptation of the book, with music and lyrics by Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Lessner, was staged at the Martin Segal Theater (New York, NY) in 2003.
Yet another unique stage adaptation of Einstein's Dreams was produced at the University of Memphis (Memphis, TN) in 2006, directed by Gloria Baxter.
A dance/theater adaptation of Einstein's Dreams was staged at the Dance Theater Workshop (New York, NY) in 2006.
A choral production based on the novel, with music and lyrics by Lorraine L. Whittlesey, was staged in Baltimore, MD, in 2006.
Einstein's Dreams was further adapted for the stage by Wesley Savick and produced at the Catalyst Collaborative and Underground Railway Theater (Cambridge, MA) in 2007.

Besso thinks that Einstein, who is only twenty-six years old, may be too young to come up with a theory of time. Besso then thinks of all that Einstein has already achieved and begins to believe it may be possible. Besso tells Einstein that he won't be able to see him for a while because his brother is coming from Rome for a visit. Afterwards, Besso thinks that Einstein is very independent; he does not go anywhere with his wife, and often sneaks away from her at home to work on his "equations." Thinking about what Einstein said earlier about "The Old One," it occurs to Besso that "for such a recluse and an introvert, this passion for closeness seems odd."

8 May 1905

The narrative returns to the dream worlds, and this chapter opens with the statement "The world will end on 26 September 1907. Everyone knows it." A year before this date, the schools and businesses close. People are more honest with themselves and one another. They are also more polite; no one seems upset about the end because it will happen to everyone: "A world with one month is a world of equality." At the last minute of time, everyone gathers together silently, holding hands. In the "last seconds" it seems as if everyone has jumped from a mountain and "the end approaches like approaching ground."

10 May 1905

Areas of the village in this world are stuck in different time periods. The architecture of each neighborhood reflects this. Time can "hypothetically" be "smooth or rough, prickly or silky, hard or soft." Here, it is "sticky," so objects and people sometimes get stuck. In this world "no one is happy" and "everyone is alone." This is because "a life in the past cannot be shared with the present." People who become "stuck in time" are "stuck alone."

11 May 1905

In this world, everything is neat and orderly. For instance, the leaves fall from the trees in organized patterns, the paint on the buildings does not peel and grows brighter instead. Here, "the passage of time brings increasing order. Order is the law of nature." Instead of spring cleaning, people make a mess every spring. They break things and throw away their watches and appointment books. This goes on all through spring and winds down as summer begins.

14 May 1905

Here, "time stands still"; everything is frozen in stillness; raindrops and clock pendulums are stuck in midair. People who get closer to this place begin to slow down until they come to "dead center" and "stop." This happens because time does not move at "the center of time." Instead, it ripples "outward in concentric circles" like a stone thrown in a pond.

There is very little light at the center of time. It cannot travel through time as it normally would and therefore dims. People just outside the center move "at the pace of glaciers." A single action can take years to complete. Not surprisingly, some feel that the center should be avoided, believing that "life is a vessel of sadness, but it is noble to live life, and without time, there is no life." Those that disagree "would rather have an eternity of contentment, even if that eternity were fixed and frozen, like a butterfly mounted in a case."

15 May 1905

This world has "no time," only "images," perhaps of what might be thought of as frozen moments. What follows in this chapter is a long list of these images, brief snapshots of people and nature. This world is nothing but individual tableaus of life.

20 May 1905

The inhabitants of the city in this world walk around disoriented, using maps to find their way or writing down their experiences as they happen for future reference. Although the people have lived in this city since they were born, they are always discovering it anew because "in this world, people have no memories." Husbands and wives return home to meet each other and their children as if for the first time. "A world without memory is a world of the present."

22 May 1905

Morning breaks in the city and reveals a road that goes nowhere, a house removed from its lot, and a church depicting images of both a religious and non-religious nature. A man walking down the road suddenly turns around, shrieking "excitedly." All of these oddities are a result of the fact that, in this world, "time flows not evenly but fitfully." Because of this people can catch "fitful glimpses of the future." People who see themselves in new careers in the future, immediately leave their current jobs. Parents who see where their children will live in the future move their houses there today. People feel there is no point "in continuing the present when one has seen the future." Those who have seen their future are successful in all that they do, knowing which choices to make and which to avoid. Those who have not are unable to make decisions for fear of making the wrong one.

Some people, however, try to avoid their futures. A man sees himself working as a barrister, so he decides to become a gardener. Eventually, he gets tired of his low pay and becomes a barrister. A woman falls in love with a man who is not the man she sees herself marrying. He leaves, and then she marries the other man. The chapter ends with the questions: "Who would fare better in this world of fitful time? Those who have seen the future and live only one life? Or those who have not seen the future and wait to live life? Or those who deny the future and live two lives?"

29 May 1905

Everything in this world moves at a swift speed; the buildings are on rails, moving along like locomotives. People run around and even their office desks constantly move about. Here, time moves "more slowly for people in motion." Everyone moves about in order "to gain time." Unfortunately, "the motional effect is all relative." The faster a person is going, the faster their neighbor appears to be going, and the slower they themselves seem to be going. Because of this, "some people have stopped looking out their windows." These people live peaceful lives.

Interlude

The narrative returns once again to Einstein in the waking world. He is at an outdoor café with Besso. Einstein does not look well, but repeatedly says he is "making progress." He tells Besso, "I think the secrets will come." The two men discuss a colleague's paper, which neither of them likes. The men silently fiddle with their food and coffee. Einstein gazes at the Alps, but he is really looking "into space," a practice that sometimes gives him headaches.

Besso invites Einstein, Mileva, and the baby, Hans Albert, over for dinner. He is worried about his friend, though Einstein has been like this before. Einstein says he cannot come to dinner, but his wife and baby can. Neither Besso or Einstein knows why Einstein married. Einstein thought his wife would take care of the housekeeping but that has not been the case. The two men then discuss a patent application that Einstein intends to revise. He has anonymously volunteered amendments to several inventions without taking any credit. Nevertheless, when Einstein's first paper was published "he imitated a rooster for fully five minutes."

2 June 1905

Here, "time flows backward." A man who could be Einstein accepts the Nobel Peace Prize for physics. He thinks of when he will be younger and learn "things about Nature that no one has ever known." He thinks of a "time when he will be young and unknown and unafraid of mistakes." A man at the grave of his friend "does not weep." He knows the days he will spend with his friend are still ahead of him. He waits for his friend to return and remembers the time they will spend together.

3 June 1905

In this world, people only live for one whole day. This is either due to the fact that their experiences have sped up to the point where a lifetime is compressed into one day, or because the earth has slowed down to the point where a full lifetime can be lived in one day. Because of this, people only learn about seasons in books. People born in winter never see flowers. People born in summer never see snow.

People are mindful of each moment and they hurry to live their lives in the brief time allotted them, forever watching "the change in the light." Everything happens so swiftly that seniors begin to doubt how anything that has happened to them could have been real, how they could have truly experienced anything or truly known anyone.

5 June 1905

Here, "time is a sense"; each individual experiences time differently. Three people looking at the boats as they pass by see three very different scenes. One person sees them moving so swiftly they look as if they are skating on ice, one person sees them moving so slowly they are almost still, and another sees them as floating alternately forwards and backwards. Philosophers "argue whether time really exists outside human perception." They wonder if events can be said to "happen at all." They sit together and "compare their aesthetics of time."

9 June 1905

People in this world live forever, and they react to this fact in one of two ways. "The Laters" believe they have all the time in the world to accomplish things, so they take their time doing everything. They wander about in cafés, have easy conversations, and read whatever is around to read. "The Nows," however, believe that they can experience everything, and they rush about attempting to do just that, learning new trades, and rushing through conversations, always on to the next thing.

The downside to immortality is that no one is "whole" or "free." Some, then, feel that "the only way to live is to die." They commit suicide and by dying are finally "free of the weight of the past." This is how "the finite has conquered the infinite."

10 June 1905

Here, "time is not a quantity but a quality." It "exists, but it cannot be measured." A man meets a woman on a train and urgently asks her to go on a date with him. She waits for him to arrive, though they did not set a time. He appears and they walk through a garden. It feels as if they could have been together for a lifetime. They go to a restaurant and the man's mother waits outside, believing that her son is still a child because to her it feels as if he is still a child. Because time is immeasurable, there are no watches or calendars. "Events are triggered by other events, not by time."

11 June 1905

Two men attempting to part are unable to do so. They feel as if it is the last time they will see one another. A lonely woman cries as if she will always be lonely. This is because this world has no future. People are unable to "imagine the future," just as they cannot see colors outside of the "visible end of the spectrum." That is why people act the way the do.

A man sitting on the patio at a café sees a rain cloud but does not go inside because he is unable to imagine the coming rain. He is awed at how dark it is at "the end of the world." It rains and the man goes inside. The storm passes, the sun comes out, and the man goes outside, awed "that the world ends in sunlight." Indeed, "in a world without future, each moment is the end of the world."

15 June 1905

Here, "time is a visible dimension"; people are able to see it and move through it at will, going as slowly or as rapidly as they desire. Some people stick to one time, afraid to venture out into the distance. Others race into the future, though they are unprepared for it when they arrive. A young man attending the polytechnic in Zurich, Switzerland, meets with his professor. (This man could be Einstein; he graduated from that school in 1900.) The young man works on his equations and meets his professor monthly, afraid of how he will manage once he has graduated and will no longer be able to rely on such guidance. The man could skip ahead to other meetings, but he does not. Everyone in this world "continue[s] on to the future at their own paces."

17 June 1905

The world moves in fitful stops and starts. "Time is a stretch of nerve fibers: seemingly continuous from a distance but disjointed close up." The breaks in time are small, fractions of fractions of a second, and for the most part, everything runs along smoothly despite these gaps. However, sometimes that is not the case.

A man who was left by his lover begins to fall in love with another woman, but he is still hurt by the other woman's unexpected leave-taking. He searches his new lover's face for a sign that she will leave him too. The new woman does love him and will not leave him. Time stops just as a vague thought occurs to her, and when time resumes, the man sees a hesitant look on her face. He takes this to mean that she will leave him, so he leaves her instead. The woman "wonders why the young man did not love her."

Interlude

Once more the narrative finds Einstein and Besso together in waking life. They are sitting in a boat in the river and fishing. Besso eats a sandwich and Einstein smokes his pipe. Einstein says he's never caught any fish in the river and asks Besso for a sandwich. Besso feels bad about tagging along; he knows Einstein was planning to go fishing alone so he could think. The two men look at the clouds and Einstein asks Besso what shapes he sees. For the first time, Einstein refers to Besso by his first name, Michele.

Besso tells Einstein that he believes Einstein's theory of time will be successful. He tells Einstein that once it is complete they will go fishing again and Einstein can tell him about it. "When you become famous, you'll remember that you told me first, here in this boat," Besso says. "Einstein laughs."

18 June 1905

In what can be seen as a parody of the Vatican, ten thousand people stand in line outside of a cathedral in the middle of Rome. The cathedral is the "Temple of Time," and it houses the "Great Clock." It is the only clock on earth, and every person must make a pilgrimage to it at least once in their lives.

Before the clock was invented, people measured time by the stars, sun, and moon, by the seasons and the tides. It was measured "by heartbeats, the rhythms of drowsiness and sleep, the recurrence of hunger, the menstrual cycles of women, the duration of loneliness." When the clock was invented, people were "spellbound" and "horrified." Nevertheless, it "could not be ignored," and so they decided to worship it. The man who invented the clock was pressed to build the Great Clock. Afterwards, all of the other clocks were obliterated and the inventor was murdered. People returned to living their lives the way they always had, with the exception of the pilgrimage. Nevertheless, everything they did was changed by the knowledge that it was being measured. "Every action, no matter how little, is no longer free." The people "have been trapped by their own inventiveness and audacity. And they must pay with their lives."

20 June 1905

"Time flows at different speeds in different locations." Clocks next to one another tick at the same pace, but the farther apart they are in distance, the more varied their rates of progress. Because business can only be reasonably conducted in places where time passes at the same rate, business in each city is isolated. "Each city is an island," self-sustaining and alone. There are occasional travelers, but they do not notice the changes in time because everything happens "proportionally." Travelers are only aware of the changes when they contact their homes. A young daughter may have already grown old and died, or only a split second may have passed. Travelers are "cut off in time, as well as in space." They never go back to where they came from.

22 June 1905

Boys graduate from school; parents gather to watch. No one is excited by the happy occasion. They move through it as if it does not matter. Some of the boys go to college and others go to work, but no one cares about the distinction because everything is preordained. Time here is "rigid," the future will happen the way it has been planned to happen since the dawn of time. No one can do anything to change their future; they are "spectators" in their own lives.

A man who owes his friend money decides to buy himself a coat instead of paying his friend back. He is not wrong for doing so because "in a world of fixed future, there can be no right or wrong." Moral distinctions such as these require "freedom of choice," which does not exist in a world where the future is preordained. Nevertheless, the man walks along in his new coat feeling "oddly free to do as he pleases, free in a world without freedom."

25 June 1905

There is a scene of the town on Sunday afternoon. A young man plays his violin and thinks about his wife and infant son. He contemplates leaving his wife but then remembers how they met at the polytechnic. (This figure again mimics biographical details from Einstein's life.) The man is slightly aware that there are other men identical to him playing identical violins and thinking identical thoughts. Here, "time is like the light between two mirrors," moving to and fro and "producing an infinite number of images."

27 June 1905

A quarryman lives a routine life, working at the quarry and dining with his wife. His children are grown. On Tuesdays, the quarryman goes to market, and although people greet him, he does not make eye contact with them or respond. In fact, he does not make eye contact with anyone. This is because the man is stuck in a memory of himself as a schoolboy who peed in his pants. His classmates made fun of him endlessly, and in his head, he is still that ashamed little boy.

However, this is a world with a "shifting past." The past is an "illusion," but no one is aware that the past is constantly changing. If the shift is universal, how could anyone know that it has even occurred? Thus, one day the quarryman wakes up and is no longer the boy who wet his pants. He remembers that very same day in class as being uneventful; after class he went out to play with his schoolmates. Now the quarryman visits with his friends and takes strolls with his wife. Each person in this world has their memories, but "in a world of shifting past, these memories are wheat in wind." And no one is the wiser.

28 June 1905

A family picnics on the riverbank; a man, his wife, his mother, and his children. The children are playing as the adults eat and converse. A flock of birds appears and the man, his wife, and his mother, all chase after the birds, futilely attempting to catch them. The children ignore them and continue playing. The birds make their way through the city, and all of the adult townspeople stop whatever they are doing, also attempting, without success, to catch the birds. The reason people do this is that the birds are made of time; if a bird is caught, the moment in which it is caught becomes frozen and preserved.

On rare occasions when a bird is caught, the catcher is able to "savor" the moment, its sights and smells. However, they "soon discover that the nightingale expires, its clear, flutelike song diminishes to silence, the trapped moment grows withered and without life."

Epilogue

The narrative returns to the scene portrayed in the prologue. Einstein sits at his desk, having just completed his theory of time. It is no longer dawn but now eight o'clock in the morning. A clerk comes in and begins working. The typist comes in, sees Einstein and his papers. He gives them to her. Einstein paces and looks out the window. "He feels empty." He does not want to talk to Besso or think about physics. He stares vacantly out the window.

CHARACTERS

Anna Besso

In the novel, Anna is married to Michele Besso, who is referred to by his last name. She often cooks dinner for both Besso and Einstein. It appears that Anna and Besso have no children, as no mention is made of any. It also seems that they have a happy marriage. This is somewhat implied by the peaceful domestic scene of Anna and Besso hosting Einstein at dinner. By contrast, Einstein wonders why he is married, contemplates leaving his wife and child, and constantly avoids them, preferring instead to work or spend time with Anna and Besso. Anna's character is based on the historical figure Anna Besso-Winteler, who was married to the historical figure of Michele Besso. Notably, the "real" Anna's brother, Paul, married Einstein's sister Maja.

Michele Besso

Michele Besso, referred to primarily by his last name, is Einstein's friend. Besso appears in all of the novel's interludes; Einstein dines with Besso and his wife, Anna, has lunch with Besso at a café, and goes fishing with him. In each episode, Einstein hints that he is working on his theory of time, or relativity, and also mentions his progress. Besso is supportive, although the two men do not discuss Einstein's work. Besso predominantly serves as a means to give readers insight into Einstein's character. For instance, Einstein tells Besso, "I want to understand time because I want to get close to The Old One." But Besso thinks that "for such a recluse and an introvert, this passion for closeness seems odd." Besso also thinks that Einstein, who is only twenty-six years old, may be too young to come up with a theory of time. Through his eyes, however, readers see that Besso knows what Einstein has already achieved, and thus begins to believe it may be possible. In a later interlude, Besso tells Einstein that once his theory is complete they will go fishing again and Einstein can tell him about it. "When you become famous, you'll remember that you told me first, here in this boat," Besso says. "Einstein laughs."

It is through Besso's eyes that readers are first given a glimpse into Einstein's dysfunctional marriage. Besso thinks that Einstein is very independent; he does not go anywhere with his wife, and often sneaks away from her at home to work on his "equations." Besso wonders why Einstein is married, and Einstein wonders the same thing about himself. Einstein contemplates leaving his wife and child, and constantly avoids them, preferring instead to work or spend time with Anna and Besso. By contrast, Besso and his wife Anna seem to have a happy marriage. Besso's circumstances are used as a foil, or contrast, to Einstein's, thus serving to define Einstein's character rather than demonstrating his own. In fact, there is only one instance in which Einstein comments on Besso's character. While fishing, Einstein asks Besso what he sees in the clouds. When Besso replies, "I see a goat chasing a man who is frowning," Einstein responds, "You are a practical man, Michele." This is also the only instance when Einstein refers to his friend by his first name, or any name at all for that matter.

Besso's character is based on the historical figure of Michele Angelo Besso (1873-1955), who was the "real" Einstein's friend. Besso was an engineer who knew Einstein as a student (they both studied at the Zurich polytechnic) and who also worked with him at the patent office. Besso often argued with Einstein as the physicist worked on his emerging theories, helping to shape them before they were finalized. Besso was the only individual Einstein credited as contributing to his theory of relativity. Thus, the novel presents a marked departure from the facts. It does not portray Besso's contributions or the two friends' arguments.

Besso's Brother

In the novel's first interlude, Besso tells Einstein that he won't be able to see him for a while since his brother will be visiting from Rome. This mention can likely be attributed to the historical figure Beniamino Besso, mostly cited as Besso's uncle (not his brother). Beniamino did live in Rome and he worked with Augusto De Pretto, Olinto De Pretto's brother. Notably, in 1903, Olinto De Pretto published a paper that touched upon the relationship between mass and energy, one of the cornerstones of Einstein's theories of relativity. Scholars have suggested that Einstein may have learned of this through Besso's connections to De Pretto.

Dream Figures

The bulk of the novel's narrative is comprised of varying dream worlds populated by unnamed people; men, women, boys, girls, quarrymen, husbands, wives, lovers, daughters, sons, classmates, and so on. These dream figures are not characters per se but rather serve as part of the extended metaphor that each dream world depicts. The dream figures are representative not only of humanity at large but also of the human experience. Given that the human experience is largely based upon perception, particularly upon the perception of time, the dream populace exists to portray varying perceptions and experiences of each world. The dream figures give each world, each law of time, a human face, allowing the reader to imagine what each world might be like for a human to live in it.

Interestingly, different groups of people react to the same worlds differently, which gives each world a more complex, realistic feel. For instance, in the world where time slows down at higher elevations, most people live ascetic lives in the mountains, hoping to gain longevity. The remainder enjoy their somewhat shorter lives in the warm valleys, swimming in the lakes. In the world without memory, some people study the books recording their lives incessantly. Others have stopped reading their books because they do not think that knowing who they were is essential to their being. These are the people who "have learned to live in a world without memory." In the world where each city's time proceeds at different speeds, some are content to live their entire lives within the borders of their city; they think nothing can be as good or as grand as the city they live in. Others burn with curiosity and become travelers who never return.

There are also several instances in which a single figure gives readers an immediate glimpse into the conditions of living under the law of time. Such examples are set by the woman transported back in time as she anxiously watches over the great-great-great grandfather of the man responsible for forming the European Union; the man who both does and does not decide to go see a love interest; and the quarryman who wet his pants as a child, and then did not.

Einstein

Obviously based on the historical figure of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the fictional Einstein is only referred to by his last name. Since Einstein's Dreams is not a conventional novel, it is difficult to describe Einstein as the protagonist, though he is the main character. At the same time, the dreams are even more of a main character than the dreamer. Regardless, the narrative opens with Einstein having just finished his theory of time, and ends in the same way, albeit a few hours later. The interim describes a series of dreams and flashbacks.

Readers catch mere glimpses of Einstein in the book's interludes, but each glimpse is telling. In the first interlude, Einstein dines with Besso and his wife, Anna. Occasionally, when Einstein stays too long at their house, Einstein's wife, Mileva, comes with their "infant" to retrieve him. In fact, Einstein routinely avoids his wife. At dinner, Einstein tells Besso, "I want to understand time because I want to get close to The Old One." Besso tells him, "Perhaps The Old One is not interested in getting close to his creations." Besso also adds that "it is not obvious that knowledge is closeness."

In the second interlude, overtaken by work, Einstein does not look well, though he repeatedly says he is "making progress." He tells Besso, "I think the secrets will come." Einstein gazes at the Alps, but he is really looking "into space," a practice that sometimes gives him headaches. Einstein's dysfunctional marriage is again referenced, and neither Besso nor Einstein knows why Einstein married. Einstein thought his wife would take care of the housekeeping but that has not been the case. Additionally, readers learn that Einstein has anonymously volunteered amendments to several inventions without taking any credit. Nevertheless, when Einstein's first paper was published "he imitated a rooster for fully five minutes."

In the third interlude, Einstein tells Besso he's never caught any fish in the river, though he goes fishing often. Einstein does not literally fish; instead, he contemplates his work. When Einstein reappears in the epilogue, he gives his papers to the typist. Afterwards, he paces and looks out the window. "He feels empty." He does not want to talk to Besso or think about physics. He stares vacantly out the window.

Einstein also appears in his own dreams in various guises, most notably as a physicist about to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, a student at the polytechnic, and as a man playing violin as he contemplates leaving his wife. In each instance the biographical details of the "real" Einstein align with the fictional dream version.

Hans Albert Einstein

Hans Albert is the infant son of Einstein and Mileva. He never actually appears in the narrative, though he is mentioned in passing on several occasions, particularly in reference to his father's avoidance of him and his mother. The character is based on the historical figure of the same name (1904-1973). Notably, the novel makes no mention of Hans Albert's younger sister, Lieserl, who was born in 1902 before Einstein and Mileva were married and was thus kept a secret (Hans Albert was the couple's first legitimate child). Lieserl's existence was not public knowledge until 1986 and what became of her is not known. Lightman chose not to reference her in the novel.

Mileva Einstein

Mileva is Einstein's wife and Hans Albert's mother. Like Hans Albert, Mileva never actually appears in the narrative, though she is mentioned in passing on several occasions, particularly in reference to her husband's avoidance of her and their son. It is clear that Einstein does not like being with his wife. She is not a good housekeeper, and readers can infer that she is also not a good cook. Einstein often eats at Besso's house, and when the two men are fishing Einstein asks Besso for a sandwich. The character is based on the historical figure of Mileva Maric̀ (1875-1948), who became Einstein's wife in 1903.The couple separated in 1914 and divorced in 1919.

Typist

In the prologue, Einstein has just completed his theory of time. It is dawn and he is sitting in the deserted patent office waiting for the typist to arrive later that morning. In the epilogue, the typist arrives, sees Einstein and his papers and "smiles." She has typed up many of his papers for him before. "He always gladly pays what she asks…. She likes him."

THEMES

Being and Time

What is time? What is the nature of time? How do we perceive time? Is how we perceive time inherent to how we perceive everything else? These and similar questions are set forth by Einstein and his theory of relativity. More ostensibly, they are set forth in the novel under this guise and further under the guise of the physicist's dreams. By setting the tone in this manner, Lightman avoids writing what would otherwise be deemed science fiction. Furthermore, what Lightman's exploration of time reveals is that it can only be understood in terms of being in time—in other words, the experience of time. This is where the dream figures prove their purpose; it is through their examples that one is able to picture a world in which time moves backwards or at different speeds. The dream figures are the humanizing aspects of what would otherwise be a dry introduction to physics; they literally give life to the physics of time, portraying their varying perceptions and experiences of each world. Thus, perhaps unintentionally, the novel's exploration of time becomes an exploration of being in time. It bears repeating that it is impossible for the novel to be otherwise without becoming a book of equations. In a sense, this aligns with Einstein's theory of relativity, large parts of which require an observer in order to hold true.

Free Will and Destiny

Many of the worlds in Einstein's Dreams indirectly address free will and destiny. An example is the world in which the end of time is about to take place. A world in which time is about to end is one in which people feel free to do the things they would otherwise have never done, such as take a lover despite being happily married. By completely removing destiny from the equation (in the form of the end of the future, for destiny cannot exist if there is no future), all that is left is free will, and the people exercise it to the utmost. In the world in which people see the future, free will is predominantly removed from the equation, even for those who attempt to exercise it. People who have had their vision of the future cease whatever they are doing and devote themselves to their future self. Those who have not received their vision do nothing but wait for it to arrive. A rare few ignore their vision and choose a different path, only to find that all paths ultimately lead to their vision. Thus, the only will that can be exercised in this world is to choose to arrive at one's destiny directly or via a more circuitous route. In the world where time "is a circle" that "repeats itself, precisely, endlessly" people are entirely at the mercy of destiny and free will does not exist. Yet, the populace is unaware of the law of time in their universe, or of its consequences. Except perhaps for an unhappy few, the people labor under the illusion that they have free will.

In the world where time "has three dimensions," giving rise to three new worlds with each decision that is made, people question how their choices can matter. How can one truly exercise free will if every possible outcome will come to

pass anyhow? This world questions whether or not free will has to do with the reasoning behind a choice (which is still valid in this world), or choosing an outcome to the exclusion of others (which is not a possibility in this world). Those who believe that it is the former are "content to live in contradictory worlds, so long as they know the reason for each." Those who believe the latter feel that their choices are robbed of meaning. Overall, based on these examples, it seems fair to say that free will and destiny are intertwined in the nature of time, as perceived by human beings.

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY

Einstein's theories could not have been developed without the theoretical foundations established by Isaac Newton. Study Newton's life and work and give a class presentation based on your findings.
Mimicking Lightman's writing style, create another dream that Einstein could have had. As you write, think of what new constraints on time, or lack thereof, you can imagine. How would humans live in such a world?
Which other well-known physicists were contemporaries of Einstein? Research their lives and their work, and write a report on your findings.
Study Einstein's theory of relativity. Which dreams (i.e., chapters) align most with his theory? Which are the most contradictory? Conduct a class debate on this topic.

STYLE

Vignettes

Vignettes is a literary term for brief passages that provide a snapshot of a particular place, person, object, emotion, or idea. They tend to be written with a great deal of imagery. They are also very evocative, which means that they capture a sense of place or emotion without explicitly addressing that place or emotion. Vignettes tend to address their subject indirectly rather than directly, writing around their main idea, rather than of it. In this way, they are rather lyrical and poetic, and they do closely resemble prose poems. In fact, the largest difference between a prose poem and a vignette is that prose poems are generally stand-alone pieces whereas vignettes are series of related pieces. All of these qualities are true of the chapters in Einstein's Dreams. Not only are the dreams vignettes, but so too are the interludes, the prologue, and epilogue. The former are vignettes of different worlds, and the latter are vignettes of Einstein and his life.

Extended Metaphors for Time and the Human Experience

A metaphor suggests an idea or object through another image or object. Thus, two things that seem unlike are made to seem alike. An extended metaphor does this on a longer and more complex level. For instance, the entirety of Einstein's Dreams is an extended metaphor for time and its many modes of being. On a smaller scale, each dream world is also an extended metaphor for a specific mode of time, and the experience of that time is ultimately a metaphor for what it is like to be human.

Dream Figures as Synecdoches

A synecdoche is a form of symbolism, but it is more specifically a literary term that describes the practice of using a part to describe a whole, or a single characteristic to represent a larger related concept. A popular example of this is the phrase "All hands on deck." "Hands" in this phrase are the parts used to represent the entire ship's crew. In a sense, the dream figures that populate each chapter are a synecdoche. The elderly woman who wishes to capture a bird and freeze time is representative of all elderly people, and also of old age in general. Each individual mentioned in the dream worlds becomes a stand-in for all of the people who are conceivably like them. Their individual experience of time is a synecdoche for all experiences of time.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. His mother was Pauline (Koch) Einstein, and his father, Herman Einstein, was an engineer and salesman. The family, though Jewish, was not actively religious. In 1880, the family moved to Munich, and in 1881, Einstein's sister, Maja, was born. Einstein did not speak until the age of three, and his parents feared he was impaired in some way. At the behest of his mother, Einstein learned to play the violin at a young age. He did not enjoy doing so, however, until later in his life. Einstein was a poor student who disliked school, though he convinced a math teacher to write a recommendation for college, despite the fact that he left high school without graduating. The Einstein family moved to Milan in 1894, and Einstein left high school the following year to join them. Einstein then renounced his German citizenship in 1896, which meant that he would be exempt from compulsory military service. He was then nationless until he became a citizen of Switzerland in 1902. Einstein completed high school in Switzerland and entered the technical school in 1896. He did not do well there, and he barely graduated, taking a degree in teaching in 1900.

Unable to secure a teaching job, Einstein worked as a tutor and then at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern in 1902. Without having worked at the patent office, Einstein's life would have been very different, and it is unlikely that he would have written his theory of relativity. The patents Einstein worked with related to electromagnetic inventions, and thus dealt with electric signals and electrical-mechanical interaction. These two issues led directly to Einstein's concepts of the way light travels and the relationship between time and space; the very foundations of his theory of relativity. In 1903, Einstein married Mileva Maric̀, but not before the two had an illegitimate daughter, Lieserl, in 1902. Lieserl's existence remained hidden until 1986, and what happened to her is not known. The couple then had their son Hans Albert in 1904. Their son Eduard was born in 1910. The marriage was an unhappy one, and after separating in 1914, the couple divorced in 1919. Later that year, Einstein married his cousin Elsa Löwenthal. Elsa had two daughters from a previous marriage, and she and Einstein did not have any children together.

In 1905, Einstein wrote three landmark papers that ultimately secured his place as a preeminent physicist. In 1908, he began working as an unpaid instructor at the University of Bern in Switzerland, and as a barely paid one at the University of Zurich. Over time, Einstein gained recognition for his earlier achievements, and his career began to flourish; he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. After having joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin as director of scientific research in 1914, Einstein held the post until he left the country in 1933. Einstein was not only a Jew but also a pacifist, and the Nazi party indicated that Einstein's work did not serve their philosophies. Thus, when the opportunity presented itself, Einstein emigrated, taking a post at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He remained at the Institute until his death on April 18, 1955. While he was there, he convinced Franklin D. Roosevelt that the atomic bomb could become a reality, contributing to the founding of the Manhattan Project. The scientists working under the project were successful, developing the atom bomb that ultimately played a part in ending World War II. Given his pacifism, Einstein did not actually take part in the development of the bomb. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1940.

COMPARE & CONTRAST

1905: Einstein publishes his theory of relativity, one of the most groundbreaking physics concepts to date. The theory posits that objects moving at or around the speed of light will appear to move faster or slower relative to their distance from a viewer on earth. It remains one of the leading theories about time for decades to come.
Today: The latest groundbreaking theory of time is string theory, a still-developing theory that posits that the building blocks of the universe form one-dimensional strings. The theory also posits that the universe is not three-dimensional but may instead contain up to eleven dimensions. Several scientists and physicists are credited with contributing to the theory, including Leonard Susskind and Michio Kaku.
1905: The world is on the cusp of World War I, World War II, and the Holocaust. These events will result in Einstein's immigration to America and his inadvertent role in the creation of the atomic bomb.
Today: Though the atomic bomb is used to end and prevent war, it is also used to incite war. The perceived threat of nuclear weapons in Iraq incites the Iraq War in 2003.
1905: The intellectual questions of the day center around humanity and its place in the universe. It is commonly believed that all manner of technological progress is inherently good for humanity at large.
Today: The intellectual questions of the day center around the impacts of globalization on humanity. The focus of technological development has shifted from progress for its own sake to progress that is environmentally sustainable.

The Theory of Relativity

In 1905, Einstein wrote three landmark papers that secured his place as a preeminent physicist. The first one was on Brownian Motion (the random movement of particles suspended in gas or liquid, also called particle theory). The second was written using the then emerging field of quantum mechanics, and it explored the photoelectric effect (which is what happens when metals transmit electrons when they are under different kinds of light). The last of the three papers was the inception of what eventually came to be known as the theory of relativity. A translation of the title of this paper is "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," and it includes the world-famous equation E=mc². The equation means that energy (E) is equal to the mass of an object (m) multiplied by the speed

of light squared (c²). This paper set forth the special theory of relativity—"special" indicating that it was only applicable in some, not all, circumstances. It was not until 1916 that Einstein finalized the theory set forth in his third 1905 paper, now referring to it as the general theory of relativity because the revised version proved the equation to be true in more wide-ranging circumstances.

Notably, Einstein's special theory of relativity was not initially greeted with acclaim; it took several years for it to gain popularity. It was not until 1919 that concrete results proving Einstein's theory of relativity were obtained by the Royal Society. The discovery that the planet Mercury did travel in closer proximity to the Sun than Isaac Newton's theory of gravitation predicted, and that light from a star did bend when it came near a massive object such as the Sun, immediately validated Einstein's theory of relativity and brought him worldwide acclaim. Three years after these discoveries, Einstein received the Nobel Peace Prize. Two years later, more proof bolstering Einstein's theory was discovered; not only does light from a star bend when it comes near the Sun, it also lengthens.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW

Both popular and critical reception of Einstein's Dreams was exceedingly warm. The book was on the New York Times bestseller list and was almost immediately translated into several foreign languages, becoming an international bestseller as well. Critics predominantly commented on the lyrical nature of the novel, as well as its creativity. For instance, Hudson Review critic Thomas Filbin calls the novel "a religious event of secular physics which couples mystical vision with the scientific fervor to explain." Overall, Filbin concludes that "this brief but relentlessly beautiful book … is literature of realization and transcendence." Lightman "embodies the concept" of time "in brilliant, folkloric tales with extraordinary assurance," states New Statesman & Society writer Guy Mannes-Abbott. "Behind it is a formal intelligence and formidable capacity for magic, which he synthesises into prose like bottled air," adds Mannes-Abbott. Another laudatory assessment is proffered by an Economist reviewer, who calls the novel "a joy." Explaining this opinion, the reviewer notes that Einstein's Dreams "bridges disciplines by linking intellectual understanding with the kind of relaxing enjoyment to be expected from a good novel. The message is simple: like literature, science at its best must take great leaps of the imagination."

Aside from these approbations, some reviewers also commented that the novel stays true to many scientific principles. For instance, Bryce Milligan, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, observes that "this collection of speculative moments does, in several ways, reflect Einstein's actual process of inquiry." Additionally, Dennis Overbye, writing in the New York Times Book Review, observes that many of the dream worlds demonstrate various theories of time. For instance, he notes that "the fantasy of a world where time has three dimensions instead of one" is representative of "one view of quantum theory, known as the ‘many worlds’ interpretation." All in all, Overbye found that "Lightman spins these fantasies with spare poetic power, emotional intensity and ironic wit."

CRITICISM

Leah Tieger

Tieger is a freelance writer and editor. In the following essay, she examines the relationship between free will and destiny as it is portrayed in Einstein's Dreams.

Einstein's Dreams is a meditation on time, but above all else, it is a meditation on the human experience of time. Lightman shows that time in and of itself can only be comprehended in terms of being in time. The varied perceptions and experiences of the dream figures in each world give life to time in its many guises; however, an unintended consequence of this is the emerging question of free will and destiny as it relates to the experience of being in time. Over the course of the novel, the examples set by each law of time appear to prove that free will and destiny are inextricably entangled in the nature of time (or, at the very least, they are at the heart of the experience of time). Several of the dreams underscore this in interesting ways, especially the dreams of May 11, May 15, June 9, June 18, and June 22. These particular dreams indicate that free will and destiny are symbiotic; yet, where one holds a strong influence, the other is far weaker (and vice versa). Each, in fact, circumscribes the other.

In the dream of May 11, a world of "increasing order" is depicted. The paint on the buildings does not peel and, instead, grows brighter. People lay in bed as their houses clean themselves. Gardens don't need to be maintained. Everything, it seems, pretty much takes care of itself. Because of this, philosophers believe "that without a trend toward order, time would lack meaning." This may be true of time in this world, but one could posit that just the opposite is true for the human beings in this world. What is the meaning of life in a world in which everything resolves itself to orderliness? How does one exercise free will in a world where even the leaves fall from trees in an orderly fashion? This trend toward order is an all-encompassing destiny in and of itself. Furthermore, it appears that people can only suffer under their tidy destinies for brief periods of time. In a world in which the equivalent of order is meaning, the people respond by causing disorder. They make a mess every year, breaking things and throwing away their watches and appointment books. They drink to excess. This goes on throughout spring and winds down as summer begins.

The May 15 dream is an anomaly, even in a book filled with anomalies. This is because the world portrayed in this dream, unlike all of the others, has "no time." Instead, it has only "images." These images appear to be frozen moments (even though a "moment" in a world without time is impossible). Nevertheless, the dream consists of a long list of images, mostly brief snapshots of people and nature. This world is nothing but individual tableaus of life. In a world such as this one, there can be no destiny and no free will. This is because neither can exist without time. The world explored in this dream further underscores that destiny and free will cannot exist outside of the experience of time.

WHAT DO I READ NEXT?

Alan Lightman's Good Benito (1995) is also told in vignettes and is also about a physicist, albeit a fictional one. However, this novel focuses on characterization and the protagonist's familial and romantic relationships.
The House on Mango Street (1983), by Sandra Cisneros, is one of the best-known and most-studied collections of vignettes. It is a coming-of-age novel about a Latino girl growing up in Chicago.
The fifth edition of Physics for Poets (2003), by Richard H. March, is a classic layman's introduction to physics. The original edition was published in 1970.
Walter Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe was published in 2007. It is the only biography that addresses Einstein's correspondence.

In the June 9 dream world, destiny is eradicated by immortality, which leads to an abundance of free will. People react to this in one of two ways. "The Laters" believe they have all the time in the world to accomplish things, so they take their time doing everything. They wander about in cafés, have easy conversations, and read whatever is around to read. "The Nows," however, believe that they can experience everything, and they rush about attempting to do just that; learning new trades, and hurrying through conversations, always on to the next thing. Yet, humans aren't equipped to handle unmitigated free will, and thus it becomes diminished in startling ways. Since everyone's relatives are still alive, most people feel compelled to get advice from their infinite list of elders, and this means that "no one ever comes into his own." So much time is spent gathering advice that "life is tentative." Plans are started and abandoned halfway through. Without death (the ultimate destiny) acting as the foil that shapes and defines life, the resulting plethora of free will ironically means that no one is "whole" or "free." Some, then, feel that "the only way to live is to die." They commit suicide and by dying are finally "free of the weight of the past." This is how "the finite has conquered the infinite." And it is also how destiny has conquered unmitigated free will. The only true exercise of will in this world is suicide, creating a destiny where none existed before.

The world that is depicted in Einstein's June 18 dream seems to be indicating that measuring time diminishes free will and amplifies destiny. In this world, every person must make a pilgrimage at least once in their lives to the "Temple of Time" that houses the "Great Clock," paying homage to the clock by chanting off each minute for an hour. Before the clock was invented, people measured time by the stars, sun, and moon, by the seasons and the tides. It was measured "by heartbeats, the rhythms of drowsiness and sleep, the recurrence of hunger, the menstrual cycles of women, the duration of loneliness." In other words, the time before time was poetic and intuitive, closely related to the movements of the universe, of the body, and of the soul. This was once a world largely ruled by free will, so much so that it seemed as if time was directed by the natural world (and not vice versa). The invention of the clock thus inverted this state of affairs, and people were rightly "spellbound" and "horrified" by the device. Although all of the clocks (along with their inventor) were destroyed—save the one in the temple—every attempt to return to life as it once was has proved futile. Everything the people do is forever changed by the knowledge that it is being measured. "Every action, no matter how little, is no longer free." The people "have been trapped by their own inventiveness and audacity. And they must pay with their lives." Thus, they have become slaves to destiny, to the measured inevitability of time passing.

Yet another fascinating take on the relationship between free will and destiny appears in the June 22 dream. In this world, there is no free will, only destiny. Boys graduate from school; parents gather to watch. No one is excited by the happy occasion. In a world where everything is preordained, what is there to be excited about? The people move through the graduation ceremony as if it does not matter. But of course, nothing matters in a world without free will. People in this world are nothing more than automatons; powerless "spectators" of their own lives. Time here is "rigid," the future will happen the way it has been planned to happen since the dawn of time. No one can do anything to change their future. A ballerina dances mechanically, for "there is no room to float" in a world with "no uncertainty." Yet, something truly remarkable occurs; a sense of free will (which may or may not be illusory) occurs when a man abdicates personal responsibility in the face of his own powerlessness. The man in question owes his friend money and decides to buy himself a coat instead of paying his friend back. He is not wrong for doing so because "in a world of fixed future, there can be no right or wrong." Moral distinctions such as these require "freedom of choice" (i.e., free will), which does not and cannot exist in a world where the future is preordained. Nevertheless, the man walks along in his new coat feeling "oddly free to do as he pleases, free in a world without freedom."

While several of the worlds explored in Einstein's Dreams subtly address the various correlations between free will and destiny, those explored in this essay do so in the most peculiar or extreme fashion. Some, like the June 22 dream, are even blatantly contradictory. It seems that the only consistency between these examples is the indirect correlation between free will and destiny. It appears that both can not exist without the experience of time, yet they exist in varying degrees of influence depending on the exact nature of the law of time in which they occur.

Source: Leah Tieger, Critical Essay on Einstein's Dreams, in Novels for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009.

David Brittan

In the following essay, Brittan interprets Einstein's Dreams as a work in which Lightman argues with himself.

A physicist and a poet meet at a cafe on the Kramgasse in Bern, Switzerland, and contemplate the nature of time. "Time is unyielding, predetermined," says the physicist.

"Yet," the poet counters, "it squirms and wriggles like a bluefish in a bay."

"What if time passes more slowly for people in motion?" says the physicist. "To gain time, everyone must travel at high velocity."

"Or," says the poet, "suppose that time is not a quantity but a quality, like the luminescence of the night above the trees just when a rising moon has touched the treeline. It exists, but it cannot be measured."

As their musings grow wilder and wilder, it becomes apparent that the physicist and the poet are in fact the same person. They are Alan Lightman, arguing with himself.

Throughout his life, the Memphis-born physicist and poet has struggled to balance his two selves, going so far as to divide his time at MIT between teaching physics and running the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. Einstein's Dreams, his best-selling first novel, brings the two Alan Lightmans together for 30 meditations on time. The setting is Bern—where the young Einstein worked as a patent examiner—in the months leading to the completion of the special theory of relativity in 1905. Every few nights, Einstein dreams about time. In each dream, the citizens of Bern go about their lives as shopkeepers or lawyers, lovers or parents, sippers of coffee or writers of letters. Yet in each dream, they have had to accommodate some grave alteration in the way time works.

In a world where time passes slower the farther one gets from the center of the earth, people take to the high ground to preserve their youth. In a world without memory, notebooks are indispensable. Where time is a sense, like sight or taste, some see life whizzing by as in a Chaplin film, others feel it pass with the slow progress of clouds. Where time is a visible dimension, people have the option of sticking close to a comfortable moment or rushing blindly into the future.

One of the dreams hands Einstein the vision of time he will incorporate into his special theory, but it is camouflaged among the other visions, just as it is camouflaged in this review. "An insider joke in the book is that the true theory of relativity is at least as fanciful as all the other dreams," says Lightman in his office at MIT. "Twentieth-century physics has gone into such incredible realms that our new view of nature appears fantastic and unbelievable."

Through Einstein's Dreams, the human mind is revealed to be no less fantastic and unbelievable. At first glance, the dreams are bizarre distortions of time as we know it. But on closer inspection, they are time as we know it.

PATHOLOGIES OF TIME

Physicists see time as a straightforward affair—it flows in one direction, from past to future. "The second law of thermodynamics says that systems become more and more disordered in time," Lightman explains patiently. Why not the reverse? Probability, he says. Odds are great that a pendulum will gradually cease to swing as its energy is absorbed by the surrounding air molecules. Odds are slim that the air molecules will spontaneously organize themselves to nudge a still pendulum into motion. Time as nature offers it to us is simple.

But what physicists know—or think they know—about time is almost irrelevant to our actual experience of it. The past, even though in the physical sense it has vanished irretrievably, stays alive in our memories. The present, which has no special cosmological significance, is the conduit for our senses and the stage for our actions. The unknowable future is the foundation of all hope, will, and sense of progress. Time is life, as the saying goes.

Time is also the subject of endless refractions as it filters through the human mind. Here the straight line of the physicist can become a tangle of detours and U-turns that render past, present, and future indistinguishable. In this regard, Einstein's Dreams is a laboratory for studying pathologies of time. Its instruments are the metaphors and insights of the poet.

In a dream where "imagining the future is no more possible than seeing colors beyond violet," people are paralyzed. "They lie in their beds through the day, wide awake but afraid to put on their clothes. They drink coffee and look at photographs," Lightman writes, perfectly describing the narrowed horizons of the depressive. In fact, who hasn't been so overwhelmed buy the pressures of the moment that the future seems to evaporate?

An obsession with the future can be just as debilitating. In one dream, time is a river with back eddies that sometimes sweep people into the past. A woman displaced in this way crouches in the shadows at no. 19 Kramgasse, frozen at the thought of altering the future. She huddles in a corner, then quickly creeps across the street and cowers in another darkened spot, at no. 22. She is terrified that she will kick up dust, as a Peter Klausen is making his way to the apothecary on Spitalgasse this afternoon of 16 April 1905. Klausen is something of a dandy and hates to have his clothes sullied. If dust messes his clothes, he will stop and painstakingly brush them off, regardless of waiting appointments. If Klausen is sufficiently delayed, he may not buy the ointment for his wife, who has been complaining of leg aches for weeks. In that case, Klausen's wife, in a bad humor, may decide not to make the trip to Lake Geneva. And if she does not go to Lake Geneva on 23 June 1905, she will not meet a Catherine d'Epinay walking on the jetty of the east shore and will not introduce Mlle. d'Epinay to her son Richard. In turn, Richard and Catherine will not marry on 17 December 1908, will not give birth to Friedrich on 8 July 1912. Friedrich Klausen will not be father to Hans Klausen on 22 August 1938, and without Hans Klausen the European Union of 1979 will never occur.

This sort of precognition is not exactly universal, but the fear of setting off a chain of ever more significant events may well be. Lightman finds this fear dehumanizing: "If you feel you have to tiptoe around everywhere and not disturb anything, you can't participate in the world," he says.

The same holds true in a world where time is "sticky," trapping people in some moment of their live from which they can never free themselves. Here a man speaks only of his school days, years after his friends have moved on to successful careers. Another is doomed to relive a dinner long ago at which he failed to tell his father he loved him. Elsewhere, a woman gazes at an old photo of her son in the pink of his youth. She writes to him at a long-defunct address, imagines the happy letters back. When her son knocks at the door, she does not answer. When her son, with his puffy face and glassy eyes, calls up to her window for money, she does not hear him. When her son, with his stumbling walk, leaves notes for her, begging to see her, she throws out the notes unopened. When her son stands in the night outside her house, she goes to bed early. In the morning, she looks at his photograph, writes adoring letters to a long-defunct address. The tragedy of this existence, Lightman concludes, is that "each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone."

It would be easy to dismiss the inhabitants of Lightman's dreams with mutterings of "there but for the grace of God." But viewing these familiar neurotics as specimens under glass, we should not be surprised if we sometimes glimpse our own faces reflected back.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The dreams do more than just catalog our neuroses. They also underscore some fundamental conflicts in the human relationship to time: the unpredictability of people versus the predictability of time, the fluidity of minds and bodies versus the rigidity of clocks, and, above all, the agony of decisions. If time were three-dimensional—having a vertical, a horizontal, and a longitudinal direction like space—decisions would lose much of their momentousness. You could, like a character in one of the dreams, travel down each axis and see the consequences of a decision played out three different ways: a happy marriage, an unhappy marriage, a marriage to someone else. But because time is one-dimensional, giving us but a single shot, we are forever gauging the possible results of our actions.

Lightman hates this sort of predicament. "I don't like getting in situations where no matter what you do, you're trying to calculate its effect—how people will react, whether it will have a long-term payoff for you," he says. "Even though I myself have a lot of difficulty being spontaneous, I value it. And I value sincerity."

His answer to a world without spontaneity and sincerity is a world without cause and effect—where cause sometimes precedes effect but often succeeds it. In this world, the cosmos is irrational and scientists find themselves without meaningful employment. Yet clerks speak their minds to their bosses without fear of retribution, and people are loved for themselves rather than for the rewards they can bestow. Lightman writes: "It is a world in which every word spoken speaks just to that moment, every glance given has only one meaning, each touch has no past or no future, each kiss is a kiss of immediacy." If Einstein's Dreams has a single clear message—and Lightman swears it doesn't—then this is it: people are happiest living in the moment.

What does living in the moment have to do with Einstein? Nothing, and yet everything. Einstein is a bit player in Lightman's opus; he and his theory of relativity are the frame, an excuse to fantasize about time. But Einstein was also the inspiration for the book. "I was captivated," says Lightman, "by the idea of Einstein dreaming, which expresses a lot of the dialectic in the book: ‘Einstein’ on the one side—this rational being who deals quantitatively with the laws of nature—and then ‘dreams’ on the other side, which has an ambiguous, poetic, hazy feeling to it. The antithesis of these two ideas—these two words—seemed to spawn all sorts of rich possibilities."

Einstein and dreams. Physics and poetry. "The tide descended on me from I don't know where, though I was certainly thanking the muses when it came," says Lightman, perhaps unaware that it refers to himself.

Source: David Brittan, Review of Einstein's Dreams, in Technology Review, Vol. 96, No. 4, May-June 1993, p. 69.

SOURCES

"Alan Lightman,"Web site of the MIT Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, http://www.mit.edu/~humanistic/faculty/lightman.html (accessed June 27, 2008).

Falotico, Michael, "Albert Einstein and Olinto De Pretto," in Italian American Web Site of New York, http://www.italian-american.com/depretreview.htm (accessed June 27, 2008).

Filbin, Thomas, "Eurofiction, Interest Rates, and the Balance of Trade Problem," in the Hudson Review, Vol. 46, No. 3, Autumn 1993, pp. 587-92.

Lightman, Alan, Einstein's Dreams, Warner Books, 1994.

Mannes-Abbott, Guy, Review of Einstein's Dreams, in the New Statesman & Society, Vol. 6, No. 237, January 29, 1993, p. 46.

Milligan, Bryce, Review of Einstein's Dreams, in the National Catholic Reporter, Vol. 29, No. 30, May 28, 1993, p. 35.

Neffe, Jürgen, Einstein: A Biography, translated by Shelley Frisch, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.

Overbye, Dennis, "A Kiss Is Just a Kiss of Immediacy," in the New York Times Book Review, January 3, 1993.

Review of Einstein's Dreams, in the Economist, Vol. 326, No. 7794, January 16, 1993, p. 90.